Colorado Senate Race Update

So how's Michael Bennet, President Obama's favorite education senator, doing in his campaign to get elected?

According to the latest polls posted at Political Wire, not so well:

A new McClatchy-Marist poll in Colorado finds Ken Buck (R) leading Sen. Michael Bennet (D) in the U.S. Senate race by eight points among likely voters, 50% to 42%

A new SurveyUSA poll in Colorado shows Ken Buck (R) leads Sen. Michael Bennet (D) in the U.S. Senate race, 48% to 43%.

Said pollster Jay Leve: "That extra enthusiasm the men are showing, or lack of enthusiasm women are showing, is providing a margin for Republicans in a tight race."

Via Huffingtonpost, here is one more recent poll:

A recent Fox News/Pulse Opinion Research poll shows Republican Ken Buck with a slight edge over incumbent Democrat Michael Bennet in the race for Senate in Colorado.

The poll, which surveyed 1,000 voters, showed Buck with a 47-43 lead over Bennet, with 5% voting for another candidate, and 5% still undecided. Unaffiliated voters broke for Buck 46-41.

The Denver Post characterized the race this way:

"It's certainly not in the bag for Buck, but it looks good for him," University of Denver political scientist Seth Masket told the Post. "Bennet has his work cut out for him, and there's only a month to go. For Bennet to be polling where he is as the incumbent, it's a difficult situation for him."

Ken Buck is a Tea Party favorite with the usual Tea Party/GOP positions - deport Mexicans, defund Social Security and Medicare, get government out of the lives of individuals (except when it comes to who has control over a woman's uterus, of course.)

On education, he seems to follow suit, holding a view pretty close to the old platform of Abolish the Department of Education the GOP had before George W. Bush and the ed deform movement took control of the party:

In a statement reminiscent of Nevada GOP Senate candidate Sharron Angle’s call to abolish the federal Department of Education, Colorado GOP Senate candidate Ken Buck falsely claimed at a Q&A session with College Republicans that American schools have declined since the 1950s because of increased federal involvement in education:

In the 1950s, we had the best schools in the world, and the United States government decided to, um, get more involved in federal education. Where are we now after all those years of federal involvement? Are we better, or are we worse? So what’s the federal government’s answer? Well since we’ve made education worse, we’re gonna even get more involved. And what’s gonna be the result?

Looks like a damned if you do/damned if you don't election.

Bennet is a Wall Street/ed deform movement favorite who will work to enrich his hedge fund backers, privatize public education, make sure his buddies at Goldman Sachs make more money via the for-profit education industry, and destroy teachers unions by scapegoating teachers and blaming them for all the ills of public education.

Ken Buck, on the other hand, is pretty much a nutcase of the kind described by Matt Taibbi in his new piece on the Tea Party.

I'm kinda hoping Bennet goes down because I think it is time for corporate-friendly Dems to be weeded out of the party.

Dunno if that will ever happen, given the amount of Wall Street/corporate money in the system, but nevertheless it would be nice to start the movement by knocking Bennet off.

Plus I want to see Obama lose an ally on education from the Senate AND get a black eye from having one more candidate he has worked hard for lose an election.

In my opinion, anything that undermines the power, authority and influence of Barack Obama these days is a good thing.

Nonetheless, whatever happens in this election, I won't feel good about it either way.

A Buck win could give the Senate to the GOP. With the House pretty much a lost cause for Dems, that would be a major power coup for the GOPers.

But after watching what Obama and the Dems have done TO the economy, public education, civil liberties, the UAW and unions and what they have done FOR Wall Street, the banks, and the moneyed/corporate interests, I am dubious a GOP-controlled House and Senate will change that much.

I mean, what could they do differently than the Dems?

That seems to be standard these days - Dem, Repub, it's all the same - they screw the middle and working classes, scapegoat teachers and buddy up to the moneyed interests.

Not all that different in NY with Cuomo.

Heads we lose, tails we lose too.